Tuberc Respir Dis.  1989 Jun;36(2):120-126. 10.4046/trd.1989.36.2.120.

A Study on Diagnostic Value of Lysozyme Activity in Various pleural effusions

• KMID: 2528558
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4046/trd.1989.36.2.120

Abstract

Lysozyme (Muramidase), a lysosomal bacteriolytic enzyme orginates in serum from decomposed polymorphonuclear neutrophils and monocytes, and is distributed widely in body fluids and tissues of humans. In 1976, Klockars et al found high levels of lysozyme activity in tuberculous pleural effusion, but later the lysozyme activity level was stated to be on limited diagnostic usefulness. So we measured the levels of pleural and serum lysozyme activity in 82 patients with pleural effusions of various causes for evaluation of diagnostic usefulness, and following results were obtained 1) Mean level of pleural ADA activity of tuberculous pleural effesions was 82.49±4 1.51 U/ L, and was significantly higher than that of malignant pleural effusions 28.4 7±14.50 U/ L (p<0.01). 2) Mean level of pleurallysozyme activity of tuberculous pleural effusions was 14.09±9.91 ug/ ml, and was significantly higher than that of malignant pleural effusions 5.68± 3.55 ug/ ml (p < 0.01). 3) Mean level of serum lysozyme activity of tuberculous pleural effusions was 5.02±2.91 ug/ ml , and was not higher than that of malignant pleural effusions 5.30±5.64 ug/ ml (p>0.01). 4) Mean of pleural and serum ratio of lysozyme activity of tuberculous pleural effusions was 4.16±4.26, and was significantIy higher than that of malignant pleural effusions 2.26+2.46 (p<0.1). 5) We have found a low correlation between pleural ADA and Lysozyme (r=0.45; p<0.01) in 82 patients with pleural effusions. On conclusions, we did not found definitive level of pleural lysozyme activity level and pleural and serum ratio of lysozyme activity due to considerable overlap of the individual values between the tuberculous and malignant pleural effusions.